iTunes Sharing Marketing the Collection (Tame the Web: Libraries and Technology)

Bruce Connoly has an article in the new Computers in Libraries that presents an incredible idea: use iTunes built in sharing capaibilty to share music with library users! Connoly discovers other folks music librraies showing up when he opens iTunes. His thinking, sparked by the recent EDUCAUSE conference and Joan Lippincott's article on serving Net Gen users, leads to this:

We started by creating a playlist called "Schaffer Library - New Music" consisting of about 2 dozen songs. We used complete songs, not samples. Generally, we included no more than a track or two from any one CD title. We decided to add the Schaffer Library call number in the Comments field (although this is an optional display field and users may not have it turned on) and to include additional information sometimes.

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Query from Rita Vine about library handheld product vendors direct marketing library users

Are any of you aware of vendors of library handheld products who are
sending direct marketing emails to your library's users who register to use
these products? A direct marketing email would be one that would be sent
directlyto a registered user of one or your library-licensed handheld products,
intended to advertise other electronic handheld products that an end
user could purchase directly, or one that would, as an example, suggest to
anend-user to "tell your library to buy handheld product X."

Contact me directly at rita DOT vine AT utoronto DOT ca , or you can
alsoreach me by phone 416 946 4041

Thanks,

R i t a V i n e
Gerstein Science Information Centre
University of Toronto
rita.vine@utoronto.ca

Handheld Librarian Welcomes Megan Fox!

A huge warm welcome to new Handheld Librarian Megan Fox! Megan is one of the national leaders in handheld technology and applications for libraries! Megan is the Web and Electronic Services Librarian at Simmons College and has spoken all over the country at numerous conferences on handhelds and libraries. A wonderful site by Megan on PDAs, Handhelds and Mobile Technology in Libraries is at http://web.simmons.edu/~fox/pda.

Thanks to Megan for joining us and to Grace Lee in New York for her ongoing posts to Handheld Librarian!

Thomson Gale adds Podcasts

Thomson has announced the addition of podcasts to various Gale InfoTrac databases.

To enable them to jump on the podcasting trend, Thomson is using the more liberal interpretation of the concept of "podcast" - meaning any online audio, as opposed to the stricter initial conception of the term, which is defined as a technology that allows users to subscribe to a set of feeds to listen to regularly updated syndicated audio Web content (pcwebopedia).

Podcast feeds are being added to the General Reference Center, Student Resource Center, Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center, History Resource Center, and more. Weekly presidential radio addresses by George W. Bush from January 2005 to the present will be podcast beginning November 8, 2005. New presidential radio addresses will be added weekly.

While this addition marks the first podcast ever loaded to Thomson Gale reference databases, the company says it will add more podcasts in the coming months.

EBSCO's DynaMed Now Available via PDA

Building on the prominent adoption of handheld devices in the health and medical arena, EBSCO has made its DynaMed evidence based medicine database available for PDAs. It's great to see another one of the major library aggregators moving towards providing information for the mobile handheld library, especially a vendor that services the public and academic library markets, where PDA content development had been a bit slower...

From the Nov 2 press release: "PDA users can choose from a downloadable version of DynaMed, or access a live version of the database through available wireless connectivity. DynaMed is the only evidence-based reference shown to answer most clinical questions in primary care. DynaMed was created by a physician for physicians and other health care professionals as a point-of-care clinical reference tool to replace most routine textbook and article searches. In addition, this resource is a great tool for medical students and residency programs."

Dolphin Announces Pocket Hal screenreader for mainstream PDAs

The Dolphin Group just announced the availability of Pocket Hal, a screen reader designed for standard PDAs. Until now, visually impaired users had to spend a lot of money to get a PDA which had accessible features. Now, they can enjoy the same PDAs at the same prices as mainstream users. See this Dolphin press release for more information.

Metro PDA & Handheld Computing SIG meeting, 11/30/05

The next meeting of the New York Metropolitan Library Association (METRO) PDA & Handheld Computing SIG will be co-sponsored with the Web SIG. It will be held on Wednesday, November 30, 2005 from 3:00-4:30 at METRO (57 East 11th Street, 4th floor).

The topic will be optimizing web sites for PDAs and handheld devices. We have two great speakers lined up, so it should be an interesting meeting. Denise O'Shea from National Network of Libraries of Medicine will talk about the PubMed interface for handhelds. Grace Lee of New York Law School and Jurispda.com will discuss how she uses iSilo and Plucker in her library.

Information on the PDA SIG is available at http://www.metro.org/SIGs/pda.html.
Information on the Web SIG is available at http://www.metro.org/SIGs/web.html.

For further information or to RSVP, please contact Nancy Glassman.

Handheld Puts AIDS Fight in Field (Wired News)

By Courtney Barry

A new HIV test the size of a credit card promises to diagnose the disease in minutes rather than weeks, and could be deployed in sub-Saharan Africa as early as next year.

The chip array circle shows the heart of the biochip wherein the sample collection and processing is done within a microfaricated structure.The optics that are used to count the cells using the CD4 system.Whole blood (top) and processed blood (bottom). The processed blood is stained and then cells are counted to yield immune function testing.Prototype for the CD4 analyzer and biochip sensor.

The device could solve one of the vexing problems of AIDS treatment in underdeveloped countries, where patients are not within easy reach of medical facilities. By providing an on-the-spot diagnosis, doctors hope to close the gap between test and treatment, and prevent known cases from slipping through the cracks.

The technology is similar to "blending digital camera technology with the brains of a Palm Pilot," says Dr. Bruce Walker, director of AIDS research at Harvard Medical School. Walker is part of a team of scientists at Harvard and the University of Texas at Austin who developed the sensor system. In tests, it has detected the amount of CD4 cells in the blood in as little as 10 minutes. The CD4 count indicates the stage of HIV in a patient, and helps doctors determine the best treatment and how much of it to administer. (more...)

Library Journal Webcast on Ebooks in Academic Libraries

Library Journal is offering a free webcast about ebooks in academic and
research libraries: eBooks Take the Ivory Tower. This promises to be
an exciting and informative event, and there is no travel time or
expense for you to attend.

It will begin on Tuesday, November 15, beginning at 2:00 p.m. Eastern
Standard Time, 1:00 Central, noon Mountain, and 11:00 a.m. Pacific.

There is no charge to attend, but registration is required at the
following URL.

http://web1.media.globix.net/client/lj/2005_1115/launch.htm

This one-hour round-table discussion will feature three experts on the
current scene and future trends in the academic ebook movment:
Warren Holder from the University of Toronto,
Suzanne Weiner from North Carolina State University,
Jim Mouw from the University of Chicago.

Francine Fialkoff from Library Journal will be the host, and Tom
Peters, will facilitate the discussion.

Several broad topical areas will be discussed, including:

Trends in publishing and pricing models and agreement terms
Enhancements to ebooks that improve and expand usability
Acceptance and use by different disciplines and demographic groups
Managing ebook collections and the electronic/print book
relationship
Impact of massive digitization projects, such as Google Library and
the Open Content Alliance

Library Journal is organizing this online event as the inaugural
program in their new URLearning series. The topics of future online events
in the URLearning series will be announced soon.

Thomson Gale and ABC-CLIO are the sponsors of this November 15th
kickoff event.

The URL for more information is:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6271543.html

Everyone is welcome to attend. There will be some online Q&A time with
the panelists.

Digital Textbooks Struggle to Gain a Foothold on Campus (Wired Campus Blog)

A pilot program that lets college students buy digital textbooks from their campus bookstores has gotten off to a slow start. But the company that runs the project says the early returns show at the very least that students are interested in e-books.

MBS Textbook Exchange, Inc., has released sales data from 10 colleges that started offering digital textbooks through the company's Web site this fall. According to the company, e-books now account for 5.7% of the textbook sales at those institutions.

For more details on the digital-textbook project, see an article from The Chronicle by Andrea Foster. (Subscription req'd)

ebook, ebooks, EBOOK